Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-02-10
st. Paul Ice Palace.

d N. X. X. in a Grant county village
and bought tickets for St. Paul, and
what tickets they werei long enough to
take fellow around the world. The
agent studied a long time before he
found the place to stamp them and
furnished sticks to roll them up on, SO
they could be carried conveniently
They were so worded that man would
have been obliged to commit the crimes
OF forgery, bigamy, arson. and falsfica-
ton in order to transfer one to ticket
scalper, and the man who tried to ride
back on one he bought second hand
had to walk. We arrived at the Union
Depot, st. Paul about a. m, Jan. "a,
and the first thing we saw was tobog-
ganist in costume bed blanket coat
and knee breeches, red stockings, moe
cosins and nondescript cap. Whils
Jake and 1 were trying to buy him to
bring home for curiosity, admission
iOcts. satisfaction guaranteed or money
refunded, the rest of our crowd had
gone on and we saw them no more
We followed the crowd up to Sd street
and got breakfast of beefsteak and
onions and the racked out to find the
ice palace. 1t is built in the center of
yard surrounded by high board
fence, the boards covered by pine and
cedar boughs and the entire grounds
ornamented by evergreen boughs stuck
in the snow. There are couple of
curling Kinks in the grounds where a
lot of Scotchmen were amusing the
bystanders by throwing big teakettles
at mark on the ice, 1t seemed to be a
very absorbing game. The Indian viii
lage on the palace grounds came in
for part of our attention. The Indi-
ans live in tents with flap for door
and every time we tried TO draw the
flap aside and peep in they would hurl
a log, stick of wood or some choice
swear words at us. We soon became
discouraged and entered the palace.
1t is very long. quite broad, awful high
and built entirely of ice. In the inner
tower or sanctum sanctorum is the
throne of the Ice King, huge arm
chair carved out of ice. The day was
warm and little rills of water were trick
ling down everywhere. quite puddle
had collected in the seat of the throne.
While we were admiring the carvings on
the arms of the chair, dude and two
dudines came marching along. The
dude declared he was going to be a
king for few minutes and sat down in
that pool of ice water; look of NOR tai
agony spread over his fair features, he
dropped his eye glass and lower jaw
and in trembling voice begged the
ladies to "call a doctaw" as he was
threatened with chill.
We meandered out the front doorway
through courtyard where stood an
immense ice buffalo on an ice pedestal,
through an arch of ice surmounted by
an ice statue of the Winter King, sup
ported on each side by ice bears holding
electric lights,and went up to the tobog-
gan slide, which consists OF flight
of steps up on to platform, from which
an inclined plane; yes a very inclined
plane, runs down about so feet, then
slopes off down Hill and ends in big
snow bank. Tho way the things work
is this: the tobogganer puts his tobog-
gan, which is practically board with
the front end turned up, at the top of
the slide somebody holds the thing till
he and as many more as can find room
get on, then away they go making as
much noise as they can the girls squesl.
the boys laugh, old men groan, old
ladies scold. the toboggan rattles and
another load starts right after them
At the snow bank there are generally
two dozen tobogganists all tangled up
so girl can't sort out her fellow and
vice verse. ANY one who has had the
patience to read thus far can experience
The sensations Of tobogganing to dot,
by taking board to the top of a big
barn some icy day, getting on the
board and sliding off and having some
one to slide off on top of you.
At p. m. all the breeds of dogs ever
invented paraded the streets. There
were large dogs, small dogs, dogs single
and in pairs and in harness-175 entries
altogether. Then there was parade
of fancy exuipages on the streets lasting
several hours, which consisted of all
kinds of turnouts. from Russian sledge
drawn by three horses abreast, Russian
style, 10 an Esquimaux dog team.
Some drove single. some double, some
tandem, and two or three fellows drove
moose teams.
About $3.50 p. IN. commenced the
parade of different organizations, to
the number of about 5000 men, mostly
in toboggan suits. They marched
through about seven miles of streets
and brought up at the ice palace, where
the Ice King and his army were stormed
by the Fire King and his Legions. This
was the finest sight Jake or myself or
anybody else ever saw. The palace
was illuminated by electric lights and
appeared to be on fire az it glowed in
the dark night. Every turret, column
and block stood out dull red, sharply
defined against the black sky; suddenly
the air was full of fireworks of every
description, some were fired from the
crowd outside at the palace and some
from the palace were shot out towards
the crowd. The word "Boress" in
letters of fire blazed across the grand
front arch and the grand finale was pro-
duced by firing 200 pounds of fireworks
placed around the top of the palace, the
showers of sparks falling down envel-
oped the structure in veil of fire, Civ
ing it the appearance of burning
castle.
Thus ended the grsndest day st. Paul
ever had. There were more people in
the city than ever were there before at
one time and everyone was satisfied that